12 Of The Most Shocking Celeb Breakups Ever

Some of the greatest love stories on screen can't even match the kind of love stories real celebrities have in Hollywood — or at least the fantasies we make those famous couplings out to be. There's something strange and special when two celebrities you love and adore get together and play out their lovely lives through the public eye. But that makes the pain all the worse when our tabloid romances dissolve before our eyes. If celebrity couples with everything in the world can't make their relationships last, what does that mean for the rest of us?

Sometimes when celebrities break up, its a blessing. Not that anyone can truly know what goes on behind closed doors in anyone's relationship, but I think the public can pass the judgment and say thank god Chris Brown and Rihanna are no longer together, for example. Last summer was a particularly heartbreaking time in Hollywood with summer 2015 being the season for consciously uncoupling for many celebs, but there have been a lot of painful splits over the years that were even more saddening and surprising, and they should be mourned, still, all these years later. Here are 12 of the most shocking celebrity breakups ever.

1. Ben Affleck & Jennifer Lopez

Sometimes I feel sad for kids today because they never got to experience Bennifer 1.0. Yes, it was sad when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner split last summer, but it was nothing compared to when Ben and Jen The First ended their relationship in 2004. Remember the "Jenny From The Block" video? That's what I miss about their love.

2. Britney Spears & Justin Timberlake

I am still betrayed. How can two people who look so perfect in matching denim ensembles leave us broken? If there's a reason that children of the '90s are cynical or skeptical about love, it's because of these two. THESE TWO.

3. Johnny Depp & Winona Ryder

Ugh. This one really cut deep. I thought you said WINONA FOREVER?

4. Jennifer Lopez & Diddy

Why cant J. Lo ever find anyone good enough for her? The artist formerly known as Puff Daddy was Lopez's man from 1999 to 2001, but they still love each other as much as ever. Recently Diddy called J. Lo's butt "a work of art" (true), and went on to say, "I'm so glad to have that great woman in my history. She's one the greatest I've ever seen." Same.

5. Amy Poehler & Will Arnett

Nooooooo! Even though I learned to love Amy P. and Nick Kroll — who then proceeded to again break my heart when they broke up in September 2015 — there was something so magical about the fact that Leslie Knope was married to G.O.B. Bluth. Especially because of their amazing guest-spots on each other's shows, like when Poehler shone as Arnett's wife on Arrested Development.

Poehler and Arnett were married for 10 years before divorcing in 2012. Initially very private about their split (as every celeb has the right to be), Poehler wrote about the experience in her memoir Yes Please, saying it "really sucked." I don't doubt it.

6. Heidi Klum & Seal

They loved Halloween so much. They renewed their vows every single year. They had a million (four) children together. Seal and Klum divorced in 2012 after seven years of marriage. The model later said in a Redbook interview that she played mom and dad at the same time and that women were much better than men at juggling balls. I love you Heidi Klum, never change.

7. Ryan Gosling & Rachel McAdams

Aren't America's sweethearts supposed to be together forever? It seemed like Gosling and McAdams, who apparently hated each other on The Notebook set but then, like, totally fell in love and fulfilled all of our 2000s bubblegum pop fantasies of celebrity couples; the height of which was their iconic kiss at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards.

8. Taye Diggs & Idina Menzel

I suppose sometimes when both people in a relationship are so beautiful and so talented, there's no way they can stay together. Diggs and Menzel met on the set of Rent and married in 2003. In 2014, after a decade of marriage and a year of separation the actors finalized their divorce.

In an interview with Redbook about dealing the split and the heartbroken reaction from fans, Diggs admitted, "I'd be lying if I said there weren't times when I thought, Oh, man, people are going to trip out [if we split]. Maybe they thought it was cute that we met in Rent. There weren't a lot of couples like us in the theater community... It was easy for people to root for us."

9. Brad Pitt & Jennifer Aniston

These days, with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston both in new marriages, it doesn't seem that weird that they got divorced in 2005 — but it was definitely shocking at the time. Even more shocking? The fact that more than a decade later, we're all still talking about it. Last January, Aniston, now married to Justin Theroux, issued a graceful "please shut up about this" plea in an interview on CBS Sunday Morning, in which she said, "I don't find it painful. I think it's more of a media-driven topic." What's more shocking is that I actually like these outfits Aniston and Pitt are wearing above, and that scares me a little bit.

10. Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart

For some reason the R. Patz/K. Stew split made me feel some type of way. Not because I was a Twilight fan or even a fan of either of them individually at the time. (They've since both redeemed themselves to me. Pattinson is dating my hero FKA Twigs and, as it turns out, Kristen Stewart is hilarious.) I think it was sad because it seemed like even thought they were sorta mushed together for publicity reasons to bring the Bella and Edward fantasy to life, they really loved each other. I don't know, they really seemed to like one another! They were cute! And they both hate Twilight now, which endears them to me even more.

11. Antonio Banderas & Melanie Griffith

This one is for the slightly older crowd, but Zorro and Melanie Griffith were so great together. Banderas and Griffith were together from 1996 to 2014, and were so old Hollywood: handsome, beautiful, totally in love, and elegant. To make matters worse, the very romantic Banderas said in an interview with El Hormiguero in January 2015 of their divorce, "I admire and respect Melanie first and foremost as a great actress. I have always said that. That's why she is in the movie [Automata]. And she's also the person that I loved, that I love, and will always love." Go ahead and lay it on thick, why don't you?

12. Miss Piggy & Kermit

Absolutely unacceptable and unbelievable.